Bar openings and events in NYC

We know it's cold outside. But instead of wallowing, you can pretend you’re vacationing in sunny Sonoma or Tuscany at this makeshift indoor vineyard this month.  That's right, NYC Winter Wine Festival® returns for its 14th year on March 7. Held at 630 Second, the huge festival will gather hundreds of New and Old world selections, including wines from France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, South Africa, South America, New Zealand and California. Artisans will also be on-site, supplying ticketholders with baked goods, dips and chocolates. VIP ticketholders will have access to a private area supplied with the finest selections, including pours of Champagne Pertois-Moriset Rose Blanc Grand Cru, and gourmet foods such as cheeses and desserts.  NYC Winter Wine Festival® offers an afternoon (1-4pm) and an evening session (5-8pm). There's also an express, two-hour tasting from 2-4pm or 6-8pm. Tickets start at $55 for an express tasting; $65 for the grand tasting and $128 for the VIP session. Reserve yours here. 

There are a lot of cocktail-making classes in New York, but Manhattan’s first legal distillery to open since Prohibition, Great Jones, does it just right. Set within its underground speakeasy, its two-hour class, The Shake Up, taught me how to make two actually-delicious cocktails with its smooth whiskey—but that’s not all. To start the class, we were whisked into the distillery where we had a quick tour and learned about the distilling process and the different kinds of whisky that are made on site—helping set the scene for the imbibing we were about to do below.  Once downstairs, we were immediately greeted with a Great Jones Straight Bourbon Smoked Old Fashioned (a welcome cocktail) and a solid charcuterie board (smoked almonds, marinated olives, dark chocolate coins, Jasper Hills Farm Alpha Tolman cheese, Jasper Hills Farms Moses, American Prosciutto and housemade sourdough crackers) at each table. To my surprise, we did a tasting of a few of the Great Jones Straight Bourbons, which already had me wondering how I’d get through making two cocktails. Our mixologist Ren took us step-by-step on how to make a Boulevardier and a Paper Plane, giving us tips and tricks along the way, including how to use (and open) a cocktail shaker and how to smoke one. The welcoming and cozy atmosphere helped me to relax and just learn, too, rather than being anxious about not being the best mixologist. I definitely made a few spills along the way, but I learned so much about why whiskey...